31.12.2024-2024 (x3)

 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/jhsjj0

https://www.sendspace.com/file/tcv1st

https://www.sendspace.com/file/bk4cie

30.12.2024-JESSIE J R.O.S.E. (Republic,2018)

 

POP

   Splitting an album into four chunks is a brave move for a popstar, in a genre when fans are a little more casual and expect everything to be delivered to them in one all consuming format. That said, R.O.S.E. feels like Jessie J almost fully rejecting her more mainstream appeal in order to put out a collection of tracks that mean a great deal to her on a more personal level. It might not be the kind of thing I normally go for, but as a project it’s actually quite skilled and enjoyable.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/52t2g7

26.12.2024-HYBRID Morning Sci-Fi (Distinct'ive Breaks,2003)

 

ELECTRONIC

   This British dance duo consisting of Mike Truman and Chris Healings is perhaps better known for their remixes than their own work. They have remixed such diverse artists as Alanis Morisette, Andreas Johnson, Fresh Prince and Radiohead. The work is taken seriously indeed, and sometimes Hybrid even brings in a string section just to get the right sound (a trick they also employed on this album). And I must say that most of their mixes are fantastic! But when I listen to this album I can tell that the duo works best when they can use melody and tunes already there, instead of inventing their own. Their skill at creating atmosphere is unsurpassed though, and mayhap song writing is not what this album is about. I suspect it’s more about harmonies, beautiful strings, beats, moods, dancing and getting into the groove. And it works very well in that respect. Very well indeed.

     The contribution by New Order’s Peter Hook on “True to Form” is in the form of a very trademark bass riff, but it fits pretty well with the electronic surroundings. Other collaborators are Kristy Hawkshaw, DJ John Creamer and The Hermitage String Orchestra.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/6oyuql

25.12.2024-NUMB The Valence Of Noise (Minimal Maximal,2014)

 

INDUSTRIAL

   Dirk Ivens, a self-confessed fan of these uniquely brutal and complex creations, at least does the rest of the fanbase a good service and brings together eight sampler contributions from the band on the vinyl album "The Valence Of Noise", some of which are no longer so easy to get hold of in the original. "Shithammer" in the Dred And Bled Mix from the first "Moonraker" sampler (1994), "Eugene" in the Pickaxe Mix from "Funky Alternatives Six" (1991), "Blood" in the Crash And Burn Edit from 1998's "Electropolis" and so on, but also exclusive pieces from that time such as "Suspiria" and "Half-Life" can be found here. There is no doubt about the quality of the material.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/77twwe

24.12.2024-FIXERS The Sun, The Moon, The Wind, The Sea (Dolphin Love,2021)

 

PSYCHEDELIC POP

   The Fixers from Oxford is an experimental group of like-minded people looking for their own ways to express themselves. Using pop melodies in their vocal parts, the musicians frame it in their art filled with bizarre rhythms and psychedelic synthesizers. One way or another, but it sounds really interesting.  

https://www.sendspace.com/file/avrpec

23.12.2024-JAMIE WOON Making Time (Polydor,2015)

 

NEO SOUL

   'Making Time' is a solid album, but it's elevated even further by the presence of closing track, 'Dedicated'. It begins slowly over tight percussion and woozy synth stabs, but by the time we're at the chorus and its hypnotic refrain ("Dedicated to the never-known / Dedicated to another love"), the strings envelop you like a comforting blanket. Woon continues to build textures and layers so that by the time it revisits that haunting refrain for the outro, it's confirmed its status as one of the tracks of 2015. Rarely has such a long break done someone so much good.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/psz2r9

22.12.2024-PUSS N BOOTS No Fools, No Fun (Blue Note,2014)

 

ALTERNATIVE COUNTRY

  The charming hang session with Norah Jones, jazzy singersongwriter Sasha Dobson and alt-rock session vet Catherine Popper began as three friends blowing off steam at a pool hall - think of it as a slacker version of Parton, Harris and Ronstadt's Trio project. Most bar bands don't manage trio harmonies near this gorgeous, but the song selection is uneven. A cover of Wilco's 'Jesus, Etc.' is a keeper; their take on Neil Young's 'Down By The River', not so much. Dobson's 'Sex Degrees Of Separation' is the highlight, dubious puns notwithstanding. It's a promising sign.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/l8g7qd

17.12.2024-Mr. LITTLE JEANS Better Days (Nettwerk,2022)

 

INDIE POP

   

Mr Little Jeans’ Monica Birkenes dives into the depths of her sophomore LP ‘Better Days’, an achingly emotive electropop record of trauma and healing, grief and growth that radiates with an ethereal light.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/g0o3cq

16.12.2024-I WAS A KING Follow Me Home (Coastal Town,2022)

 

INDIE ROCK

   Oslo, Norway’s I Was a King are back with their ninth album, Follow Me Home. Frode Strømstad and Anne Lise Frøkedal approached this one a little differently than previous albums, which were more full-band affairs. “We felt that doing it as a two-piece this time would be a fresh approach, playing instruments we normally don’t play just to get some different ideas and textures and keeping it as simple and organic as possible.”

https://www.sendspace.com/file/i59pvh

15.12.2024-AMY STUDT Happiest Girl In The Universe (Crocodile Laboratories/Cargo,2019)

 

ALTERNATIVE POP

   Happiest Girl in the Universe is not an easy album, lyrically. Its lyrics are painfully introspective, raw, open, honest. But musically, it’s simply magnificent, and for all the pam and anguish there isn’t a song on here that isn’t lilting, melodic, and plain lovely. Happiest Girl in the Universe contain ten songs, and every last one is perfectly crafted, poignant, and touching. Amy is definitely winning: here’s looking to a brighter future.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/tsxfbx

14.12.2024-MONO INC. The Book Of Fire (No Cut/SPV,2020)

 

GOTH ROCK

   They're an interesting band because they have a kind of power metal approach to gothic rock. While they list bands like the Sisters of Mercy, the Smiths and Depeche Mode as influences, I'm frankly not hearing any of them here on the opening title track. I'm hearing Clannad taking on an extra happy Power Quest song and removing half the notes; it's slower but just as melodic and many of those melodies feel Celtic. Drummer Katha Mia's vocals help that as well and it's the happiest damn goth music I've ever heard.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/hpchlr

11.12.2024-BOXED IN Melt (Nettwerk,2016)

 

ALTERNATIVE DANCE

   With their bigger and better second album, London-based indie/dance band Boxed In have earned their breakout moment.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/cdmi6o

10.12.2024-LUCIUS Nudes (Mom+Pop Music,2018)

 

INDIE POP

    “Nudes” is a sonically strong album. Though it could have used more fresh, original songs, the tracks the group chose to cover were solid, and more often than not provided listeners with something new. Lucius remains a resilient female group with incredible harmonies, even with its choice to ditch the pop and indie elements for a stripped, acoustic sound.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/klcto5

08.12.2024-CLAIRE CRONIN Big Dread Moon (Orindal,2019)

 

ALTERNATIVE FOLK

   Big Dread Moon is rainy day or night time music. You decide. Either way – close the curtains, switch off from the real world and drift off into Claire Cronin’s haunting, gothic paradise.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/oisqgn

06.12.2024-DaGEIST Sexy (Danse Macabre,2019)

 

COLDWAVE / DARKWAVE

     Davide Schiavoni and Frédéric Strzelczyk have been making music together since 2008, but the real breakthrough did not come until 2015 when they released their successful album '40'. Their second long-player ‘Sexy’ is as the title says. A successor that adheres to the concept they stand for: electro, some samples and dark synth lines combined with the sharp bass lines of Frédéric. Spars guitars looming once in a while, and the characteristic voice of Davide, yet a man with a good voice. Something that is not so obvious with many bands in this genre.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/kefexv

03.12.2024-DRY THE RIVER Alarms In The Heart (Transgressive,2014)

 

FOLK ROCK

   Two years since getting themselves signed up by a record label and releasing their first album Shallow Bed, hardcore folk outfit (kinda works, right?) Dry The River have returned with an arguably finer follow up in the shape of Alarms in the Heart.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/w8tewh

02.12.2024-OLIVIA JEAN Bathub Love Killings (Third Man,2014)

 

INDIE / GARAGE ROCK

   Taking you from a jazz bar to a courthouse to the inner recesses of the mind of a jilted lover, Bathtub Love Killings wields an interesting variety of guises that aren't immune to faltering. Opportunities to light a spark in a song are missed in a fair chunk of this LP. The expectation of a bruising stomp or a pulsing crescendo goes unfulfilled on the jaunty ragtag of "Merry Widow" or the fiddles-and-all bombast of "Deadly Hex", sounding like a lost song from the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack. It's a quirky and bold record, that makes for an intriguing listen. The songs can sometimes sound too abrupt and unfinished, but Bathtub Love Killings still has its place as a curiously eccentric embrace of vintage girl groups heightened with a visceral guitar twang.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/rkcgz8

01.12.2024-ROSE WINDOWS Rose Windows (Sub Pop,2015)

 

INDIE ROCK

   The nine tracks on this second LP vary widely. Sometimes, as on the closing pair of ‘A Pleasure to Burn’ and ‘Hirami’, Americana is the order of the day. Lead vocalist Rabia Shaheen Qazi has a tone smooth as silk as she slides above and around the piano of David Davila and Richie Rekow and Pat Schowe’s inventive and effective rhythm section. ‘Glory, Glory’, a fuzzed-out slab of stomping wah-wah is at the hard-grooving other end of the spectrum. ‘Strip Mall Babylon’ combines the best bits of both, with a playful edge as Davila’s organ counterpoints the lead guitar of band leader Chris Cheveyo, allied to the flute of Veronica Dye. ‘The Old Crow’ is another stomper, built on a rock solid beat, some gorgeous bluesy chordal inflexions and a swaying rhythm which would get my hips moving if my hips moved at all (they don’t). Perhaps herein lies the problem for Rose Windows. They are (or were) a band proficient in many styles. Often hinting at the bombast of Led Zeppelin, but never really going all the way there, they appear slightly hamstrung by the diversity in the songwriting of Chris Cheveyo. 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/g6sk0n

30.11.2024-MUTUAL BENEFIT Growing At The Edges (Transgressive,2023)

 

INDIE FOLK

   Every Mutual Benefit record feels like its own world, and Growing at the Edges, the fourth album from the Brooklyn-based project, is the most expansive yet. It’s aptly titled, pushing out of the boundaries of the baroque indie folk Jordan Lee’s been honing for over a decade. Growing at the Edges isn’t just a culmination of that process; Lee’s fascination with classical and jazz bleeds into the record, like the saxophone harmonies that waft through single “Wasteland Companions” or the billowing coda of “Season of Flame.” It’s Mutual Benefit’s fullest, most confident release yet.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/kw7ddk

29.11.2024-SCARLET FANTASTIC Reverie (Dirtbag Baby,2016)

 

POP

     It is probably fair to say that not many people were anticipating a Scarlet Fantastic album in 2016; their previous (and only other) record, 24 Hours, was released back in 1987 when Maggie K De Monde and Rick P. Jones had formed the band from the embers of the peerless Swans way, who split after one extraordinary album, 1984’s The Fugitive Kind.

     Where the ’80s Scarlet Fantastic traded in super-sparkly sophisticated pop music, (see 1987 smash ‘No Memory’), the new incarnation (which is effectively a solo effort from De Monde with guests) has a more organic, almost folky feel. However, the themes are not as far removed; De Monde still exudes positive energy and this always comes across in her work.  Stylistically, Reverie has more in common with her 2012 album Union, which was recorded with (Marc Almond‘s keyboard player) Martin Watkins and released under the name Maggie and Martin.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/7xbs09

28.11.2024-I BREAK HORSES Warnings (Bella Union,2020)

 

INDIE ROCK

   Sweden’s I Break Horses (aka Maria Lindén) returns with her third album, Warnings, demonstrating her music has lost none of its magisterial artistry during the project’s six-year hiatus.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/apx7ug

25.11.2024-AMY HELM Didn't It Rain (eOne,2015)

 

AMERICANA

   First a member of the post 9/11 alt-country collective Ollabelle, and subsequently working extensively with her late father Levon Helm – the drummer and regular lead vocalist of The Band – Didn’t It Rain Is Amy Helm’s debut solo album.

   Didn’t It Rain is a pleasant blues infused Americana offering, with impassioned vocals and immaculate playing.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/3ccdv5

24.11.2024-CHAD VALLEY Imaginary Music (Cascine,2018)

 

CHILLWAVE

   What's immediately striking is Manuel's voice, which is as high in the mix as ever. Liquid smooth and clear as a bell, his controlled and restrained falsetto often recalls Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant — a worthy lodestar if ever there was one. In terms of instrumentation, Manuel continues to mine the '80s for his synth touchstones, but they don't define the album, and things never sound obvious or parodic; it's a well-balanced mix of old and new.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/afurkr

23.11.2014-ALPINES Oasis (Untrue,2014)

 

ELECTRONIC

   Despite the lack of immediately catchy hooks and anthems, Alpines’ debut album is impressive for its almost hypnotic qualities, taking the listener away and placing them in an alien environment of soulful lyricism and darkly atmospheric beats. This London-based duo probably won’t generate the song of the summer with ‘Oasis’, but if any listener is willing to take the time to appreciate the album not as individual tracks but as a unique and fascinating whole the experience will surely prove itself worthwhile.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/xxxwww

22.11.2024-I LIKE TRAINS The Shallows (I Like Records,2012)

 

ALTERNATIVE / POST ROCK

   The music is dark, pulsing; it drips with the artificial, electric sound of mellow 80s dystopian pop. If ever there was a soundtrack for a party held on the oil-drenched shore of a Malibu beach house in Blade Runner, this is it. Synthesizers frequently pair with drums and heavy bass rhythms that enthrall, while lead vocalist David Martin sings with a hushed inevitability as simple – and intense – as breathing.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/es6l58

20.11.2024-HAZEL ENGLISH Wake Up! (Polyvinyl,2020)

 

DREAM POP

   “Sometimes I feel like we’re just sleepwalking through our lives,” says the Australian California-based singer-songwriter Hazel English, who aims for her album to “make people more aware and mindful”.

   Wake Up! may tackle weighty themes of capitalism and power struggles in relationships, but the woozy ambience of its shoegaze and Sixties-inspired pop is not exactly going to propel you into an invigorating new way of life.

   This graceful debut is led by a voice so sweetly soothing and expressive that it recalls both Lana del Rey and Hope Sandoval.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/24xw2i

17.11.2024-WRETCH 32 FR32 (Polydor,2017)

 

RAP / HIP-HOP

Perhaps stung into action by the meteoric successes of Skepta and Stormzy, Wretch 32 returns with almost indecent haste just a year after Growing Over Life. The opening salvo of “DPMO” (“don’t piss me off”) and “Gracious” establish a mood of pressurised celebrity that seems beneath him: aren’t these just the sort of rote complaints we’ve heard countless times before, from lesser talents? Wretch’s skills are better employed playing both sides of the sharply-observed gender battle “His And Hers (Perspective)”, and outlining early experiences of racism, and the emergence of pride and self-awareness, in “Colour Purple”; while even a routine streetlife rap such as “Thugs Prayer” contains cute throwaway barbs like “Everybody fly, but ain’t none of us pilots”. The limp, autotuned love song “Happy” and drearily positivist “Good Morning” are lazy nods to the mainstream, but elsewhere Wretch is better served by the dark sparkle of arrangements featuring grimy sub-bass synths and itchy electro beats tinted with eerie vocal samples, thumb-piano and synthetic pan-pipes.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/xzqz6p

16.11.2024-NIKI & The DOVE Everybody's Heart Is Broken Now (TEN,2016)

 

FUTUREPOP

   Niki and the Dove's Malin Dahlström has one of the most fantastic voices in pop, and on their LP 'Everybody's Heart Is Broken Now' she whirls herself into a frenzy to nip malignant growths like heartache and hate in the bud.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/kxi9t7

12.11.2024-ANNAH MAC Little Stranger (Sony,2011)

 

POP

   Annah Mac, the farm-girl who left Southland for Auckland in the hope of securing a record contract, reveals more than just prime-time FM radio potential on her major-label debut.

     Along with those infectious melodies comes a strong dose of lyrical ability as Mac (full name Annah Macdonald) documents the journey from small town to the big smoke, hinting at both a sense of loss and a sense of discovery.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/mbanjg

11.11.2024-BATHS Romaplasm (Anticon,2017)

ELECTRONICA

   Will Wiesenfeld lacks the proper sensibilities to become a bona fide pop star as Baths or either of his other sobriquets. His oft-experimental approach to electronica and his indie label affiliation place him as more of an underground hero, albeit one who’s enjoyed a prodigious amount of praise and coverage. With a sotto voce that at times leans too hard on the adenoids, Will knows better than to preen his voice for Top 40 radio. His home is with the glitch crowd. But pop star or no, Wiesenfeld, as Baths, taps into those universal feelings that makes pop music so accessible and so, well, popular.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/d3p0fl

 

10.11.2024-BITTER RUIN Hung, Drawn & Quartered (Bitter Ruin,2010)

 

ALTERNATIVE / EXPERIMENTAL POP

   Described as a boy/girl duo, but never to be underestimated when it comes to both their live and recorded sound, Bitter Ruin’s dynamic is a huge part of what makes them stand

out. Since their formation, Bitter Ruin have been a loud and proud voice in the brave new world of DIY artists - gigging, recording and releasing music direct to their fans around the world through social media.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/0ih9xq

08.11.2024-JOANA SERRAT Dear Great Canyon (El Segell Del Primavera,2014)

 

FOLK

     From the Spanish coast, Joana Serrat surprises listeners with her fresh take on Americana pop, and Dear Great Canyon harbours pretty and subtle European influences that lend the album its flair. This record has a seamless energy to it that keeps it captivating and vast.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/g3qo6g